Various trash collecting vehicles have been used in alley ways and along streets for the purpose of collecting trash from small household trash containers. Such prior art practice has included a vehicle with a driver and several pickup men who manually empty the containers into a receiver on the vehicle. The prior art practice has been followed primarily due to the problems of picking up and emptying such household trash containers in an alley way or other area where the containers are placed in random locations and on opposite sides of the alley way, and prior art trash collecting vehicles have not been provided with mechanism adapted for such operations or vehicles which are not properly maneuverable for handling the usual household trash collecting containers.
Most front loading trash collecting vehicles are adapted for elevating a large bin or the like, and the means by which they elevate the bin comprise pivotal mechanism, which is operable about a fixed horizontal axis on the frame or body of the vehicle, such as to limit the movement of the elevating mechanism to a fixed axis and consequently, a fixed arm length and a proportional relationship between the pickup mechanism and the vehicle, all of which has tended to provide for relatively bulky, unweildy prior art front loading mechanism, as compared to that which may be required for picking up small household trash containers in close quarters, such as that of an alley way where the containers are disposed on opposite sides of the alley way adjacent to fences or the like and in random locations.